It's no secret that riot armor with shields is the worst armor option in Underrail. If you want mobility, you go for a lightweight tac vest or leather armor suit. If you want protection, you go for a suit of metal armor. These armor sets don't require any feats to operate, and metal armor's only requirement is having 8-9 strength. To get the full use of riot armor, you need the shield arm feat, 5-6 strength, and you are restricted to only using one handed weapons. Riot armor is more restrictive and offers less benefits than conventional armor and needs to be reworked for infusion to stay relevant. Below are some ways riot armor could be reworked to be a viable alternative to other armors.
1. Remove the armor penalty from adding a shield- Being restricted to 1 handed weapons is already enough of a drawback to adding a shield, increasing armor penalty on top of that is overkill. Melee builds use lighter armor because they need the extra mp to run up and hit enemies, so they usually can't afford to run high armor penalty without a feat like hit and run.
2. Condense riot armor feats- Riot armor currently has 4 feats it exclusively benefits from, which is significantly more than any other set of armor. Shield Arm, Shield Bash, Boarding Up, and Iron Grip are all riot armor exclusive, and contribute to the feat bloat that makes riot armor unattractive. Shield Arm and Iron Grip's benefits should also be added to riot armor, but only have their effects active if the character has more than 8 strength. This would allow characters to use riot armor effectively without having to dedicate several feats to it. Alternatively, the benefits of shield arm could be completely removed, and you could have block chance and block amount scale with strength in a similar manner to parry.
3. Allow riot armor to block projectiles/ reduce damage from ranged attacks-It always seemed odd to me that a heavy metal shield would provide no protection from bullets, shells, and explosions. If the riot shield could block things like bullets, crossbow bolts, and cryokinesis projectiles, it would make it an interesting alternative to tactical vests. Maybe it could loose the DT increase against bullets and shells as a trade off. You could have this be an innate feature of the riot shield, or you could lock it behind a feat to require investment for the benefit.
4. Allow riot armor to block more damage types than just mechanical- Depending on the material used in the shield, riot armor could block differnt types of damage. Tungsten and burrower could block heat, Tichrome and Super Steel could block energy, psi crab could block electricity, ect.
I really like riot armor with shields conceptually, but in practice they just require too much investment for too little payoff. I'd love to hear other people's opinions on how riot armor could be reworked to make it a more appealing option.
